How AI Costs Work (Absorbed in Subscription)
AeroCopilot bundles AI into every paid tier. No credits, no tokens, no overage charges — the AI Copilot is part of the subscription itself.
How AI Costs Work (Absorbed in Subscription)
AeroCopilot has made a deliberate, durable decision about AI pricing: the AI Copilot is part of your subscription, not a separate meter on top of it.
There are no credits to buy. No tokens to track. No "AI packs." No overage charges. The AI is the reason you upgrade a tier — not a cost you absorb on top of one.
The principle
Every paid plan includes the AI Copilot as a first-class feature. When you sign up for Student, Pilot, Pro, Operator, or School, you are paying for access to the AI as part of the product — exactly the way you pay for the maps, the briefing engine, or the flight planner.
This is true at every tier:
- Free — 5 AI chats per day, with a visible counter so you know where the trial line is.
- Student — Full AI Copilot included.
- Pilot — Unlimited AI Copilot included.
- Pro — Priority AI Copilot included.
- Operator / School — AI included per seat at Pilot-equivalent capability.
Why we built it this way
We considered the alternative — credits, token packs, per-chat overage — and rejected it. A few of the reasons:
- Token-anxiety pricing measurably increases churn. Pilots fly less when they're worried about a meter ticking.
- Aviation software is a flat-annual category. ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, FltPlan Go — none of them meter usage.
- AI inference costs are dropping fast. Holding the line on flat pricing means our margin improves automatically without any change you have to think about.
- Safety features should never gate behind a credit balance. VFR-IMC alerts and scud-running warnings stay available regardless of usage.
So the AI Copilot is "always on" inside your subscription. You will never see a "0 credits remaining" screen mid-flight planning.
What about heavy users?
Internally, we track usage for cost analytics and abuse detection — the same way any SaaS tracks server load. Paying users do not see this counter and are not penalized for it. If a single account goes truly extreme (the four-figures-per-day kind of extreme), we may quietly route some chats through a faster model to keep latency healthy. You will not see a wall, a warning, or a charge.
The Free tier is the only place you'll see a usage counter — because the Free tier is the trial, and the counter exists to show you what the paid product unlocks.
Safety features are always free
Three things are unlimited at every tier, including Free:
- VFR-IMC Predictor — warns when forecast conditions cross the IMC line on your route.
- Scud Running Alert — flags low-ceiling, marginal-VFR continuations.
- Stupid Pilot Explain — plain-English explanation of why a planned flight looks risky.
These are safety-of-flight features. They do not count against any limit and never will.
What you will not see in AeroCopilot
To make this concrete:
- No "AI balance" widget anywhere in the app
- No "buy more credits" upsell
- No model name in the UI (you'll see "AI Copilot," not the underlying model)
- No per-feature meter on the Pilot, Pro, Operator, or School plans
- No overage line item on your invoice — ever
If you ever see something that looks like AI metering on a paid plan, it's a bug. Email support and we'll fix it.